Today’s song was written and recorded by the great Richie Havens, featuring on his 1969 ‘Richie P. Havens, 1983’ double album. The album combined original material with several covers for which Havens is known and included notable songs, ‘Handsome Johnny,’ ‘Stop Pushing and Pulling Me’ and today’s song, ‘Indian Rope Man.’

Later that same year Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity recorded their own version, which I couldn’t resist including a link to because it is a damn fine and funky cover! Check that out here.

Another interesting cover of ‘Indian Rope Man’ came in 1972 when Bob Marley released a version of this song changing the original title to ‘African Herbsman’

Richie Havens received critical acclaim for the release of his ‘Richie P. Havens, 1983′ album which perfectly displayed his multi-instrumental skills as well as demonstrating his ability to combine several musical genres including folk rock, world, and folk blues. Described as a concept album this was Havens’ first experience at co-producing one of his albums. Listen to the fantastic ‘Indian Rope Man’ above.